Section 1149
I. I shall inquire who are meant by the dead and living
By the dead are meant not such who are so in a figurative and improper sense, but literally and properly; our Lord uses the word dead in both senses in one passage; (Matthew 8:22) to a certain person, who proposed to be a follower of him, but first desired leave to bury his father, he said, follow me, pursue the resolution made, and attend to the service included in it; let the dead bury their dead: that is, let the dead, in a figurative sense, the dead in sin, bury those that are corporally dead: and some are dead in a moral sense while they live corporally; he or she that liveth in pleasures, in sinful lulls and pleasures, whose whole life is a continued reties of sin, are dead while they live; (1 Timothy 5:6) and this is the case of all unregenerate men, and of the Lord’s people before conversion, even until they are quickened by the spirit and grace of God; you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1) now though those who are dead in sin, many of them, be more happy than living saints as to outward things; they are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men—their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish: there are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, who increase in riches; (Psalm 63:5, 7, 12) yet the wise man would never commend such persons or pronounce them happy, and prefer them and their state to godly persons with all their troubles. Some are dead in a religious sense, while alive, are dead to a profession of religion they have made; they have had a name to live, professed themselves to be spiritually alive, made so fair a show, and gave such proof and evidence of a spiritual life, that they were judged by others, even by churches, to be living Christians, and became famous for the life of godliness, when they had only the form, and denied the power of it; now such as these after a time drop their profession of religion, depart from the faith, and become apostates, and so are twice dead, as the apostle Jude expresses it; (Psalm 63:12) first dead in sin, as other unregenerate men be, and then dead to the profession they have made of religion: and now though these also, as to their outward circumstances, may be more happy than those who are truly alive in a spiritual sense; since, by their apostasy, they may escape the troubles and persecutions, they that live godly in Christ Jesus are liable to; yet Solomon would never give such apostates the preference to real saints.
There are some that are dead in a civil sense, with respect to calamities, distresses and afflictions which attend them in this life; and which may be called, and are called, death, and they represented as dead. The captivity of the Jews in Babylon is called a death, [Ezekiel 18:32 ] in which God had no pleasure; rather, it was agreeable to him, that they should turn from their idolatries, and reform from their sins, and live comfortably in their own land again. The fore and severe afflictions and persecutions endured by the apostles and followers of Christ, go by the name of so great a death; and the apostle Paul, is particularly laid to be in deaths oft; (2 Corinthians 1:9, 10 and 11:23) that is, he was frequently in danger of his life, and exposed to death, had the sentence of it in him, and despaired of life; but now such as there, are the living in our text; the unhappy persons, to whom the dead are opposed and preferred. It remains that by the dead, must be meant such that are so in a literal and corporeal sense, whose souls and bodies are really separated from each other; in which reparation of soul and body death lies: The body without the spirit is dead; (James 2:6) and in this sense all men must die and do die; and such are intended here, such that have been dead some time past, are laid in their graves, of whom there is a certainty that they are dead; not merely given up for dead, as Isaac was by Abraham, from the time he was ordered to offer him; and who from the dead received him in a figure; nor supposed to be dead as the apostle Paul, when stoned at Lystra, but rose up alive in the midst of the disciples; but who are truly, thoroughly and certainly dead, in a literal and proper sense; which seems to be the meaning of this unusual phrase, already dead.
But here we mull distinguish between persons, and persons that are dead; the wicked dead cannot be meant; they die as other men, nor can wickedness deliver those that are given unto it: (Ecclesiastes 8:8) Notwithstanding their daring insolence and impiety, they are obliged to submit to death, to which they are appointed; such that say, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are at agreement; and so promise themselves they shall escape the one and the other; their covenant with death shall be disannulled, and their agreement with hell shall not stand; (Isaiah 28:15, 18) though they live ever so long, they die at loft, and die unhappy creatures; the sinner being an hundred years old, that is, at his death, shall be accursed (Isaiah 65:20) and therefore there cannot be the men commended for happiness in our text: the wicked when they die are cast into hell; the rich man in the parable, as soon as dead, in hell lift up his eyes being in torments, in everlasting burnings, the smoke of which torments ascend for ever and ever; their worm dies not, their fire is not quenched, their state is fixed and unalterable; there is an unpassable gulf between them and the righteous, among whom they never will have a place, and therefore cannot be the happy men here designed; but the righteous dead, whole death Balaam desired to die, well knowing that such are happy in death: These die as well as the wicked; there is, says Solomon, (Isaiah 57:1) a just man that perishes in his righteousnes s, not. eternally, but corporally; the righteous perishe s, that is, dies, and no man layeth it to heart; (Revelation 14:13) or is concerned at it. Good men, even the bell of men, die; those whole lives are most desirable, and are the most useful. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever ? They do not, they die as other men; out are happier at death; blessed are the dead, not the dead in common; but that die in the Lord. (Ephesians 7:15)
By the living that are yet aliv e, we are to understand, such that are alive when others are dead, and who are attended with various afflictions, distresses and troubles; and particularly under the oppression of wicked men in power; of whom it is as much as can be fold that they are alive, they are just alive, and that is all; which seems to be the meaning of this uncommon expression. And this is more especially true of living saints, who live spiritually, live godly in Christ Jesus, and suffer persecution in some shape or another for his name-sake: there may be said to die daily, and be in continual jeopardy of their lives; and were it not for the good hope, through grace, they have of happiness in another world, would be of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:19) See at large the description of them, in 12 and to there the righteous dead are preferred: which is the next thing to be considered; namely, to observe,